President Isaac Herzog honored 11 prominent figures from a range of fields with the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor during a ceremony at the President’s Residence on Sunday.
Recognizing their lifelong dedication to the country, the ceremony highlighted the laureates’ lasting impact on Israeli society through science, culture, academia, and public service.
The medal, established by president Shimon Peres in 2012, is awarded to those “who, by virtue of their skills, service, or in any other way, have made an exceptional contribution to the State of Israel or to humanity.”
It is the highest civilian recognition awarded by the State of Israel and is presented to leading figures in Israel and abroad from the fields of government, culture, and public service.
This year’s recipients were Yona Elian-Keshet, Prof. Hossam Haick, Prof. Mooli Lahad, Prof. Hefziba Lifshitz, Prof. Yossi Leshem, Abie Moses, Ziva Mekonen, Moshe Nissim, Rabbi Haim Sabato, Yehuda Eder, and Prof. Uriel Reichman.
President Herzog honors recipients, highlights Israeli unity
“Each and every one of you is a beacon in your field. Each and every one of you is a genuine, personal example of the power to make a difference, not only to the State of Israel and Israeli society, but to a great extent to the wider world as well,” the president remarked at the ceremony.
“There are people here who simply changed the world, and there are certainly people here who made a decisive contribution to the good name of the State of Israel around the globe.”
The president also addressed the ongoing changes in the country, including calling for unity during the election period.
“It is precisely amid our disagreements, precisely during an election period, that I will say again and warn again: elections are not a civil war! After the elections, we will all still be here, as sisters and brothers,” he said
Who are the 11 recipients of the 2026 Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor?
Five of the recipients were professors from various fields, including Prof. Hossam Haick, an internationally recognized scientist specializing in nanotechnology and biomedicine at the Technion’s Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering; Prof. Mooli Lahad, a psychologist and professor at Tel-Hai University who is an internationally recognized expert in resilience, psychotrauma, post-traumatic stress, and emergency intervention.
Prof. Hefziba Lifshitz of Bar-Ilan University’s School of Education, a researcher specializing in the learning potential of people with intellectual disabilities; Prof. Yossi Leshem, professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology, a prominent ornithologist and ecologist who has spent nearly five decades researching bird migration; and Prof. Uriel Reichman, a legal scholar, educational entrepreneur, and founding president and chairman of Reichman University.
In the field of social advocacy, the president honored Ziva Mekonen, a social activist and the founder and CEO of Mothers on Guard, which works against violence and racism targeting Ethiopian Israelis, as well as Abie Moses, who spent more than three decades advocating for victims of terrorism and bereaved families and has long served voluntarily as chairman of the Victims of Terror Organization.
For their work promoting the arts in Israel, Herzog also honored Yehuda Eder, a musician, producer, singer, educator, and cultural entrepreneur who founded the Rimon School of Music and serves as its president, as well as Yona Elian-Keshet, one of Israel’s leading stage, film, and television actresses who also serves as chairwoman of the Israeli Union of Performing Arts.
Additionally, the president honored Moshe Nissim, a lawyer and former longtime Knesset member who served in several senior government positions, including justice minister, finance minister, industry and trade minister, and deputy prime minister, as well as Rabbi Haim Sabato, a rabbi, author, and co-founder and head of Yeshivat Birkat Moshe in Ma’ale Adumim.
